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Hi,
After 14 years its time to replace my Cove Stiffee. Its got huge amounts of chain suck damage on the chainstay and after riding my Geometron it feels super nervous and twitchy. The Cove is a 21"/XL frame and still looks small.
So choices are
Orange clock work frame with a -2 degree headset and transfer the 26" bits over. The cheapest option by far as I still have a 26" tyre mountain.
2017 Orange Crush
2017 or 2018 Orange P7
2017 Genisis Tarn.
2018 Commencal Meta HT race.
Budget Sub £1800. Must be xl as I'm 6"4 with very long legs.
It will get ridden round my local woody/ flatish trails (sub 30 miles mostly), might get bike packed on, might get taken up to the peaks if the geometron is out of action.
I'm open to second hand but haven't seen any xl's that fit my bill.
Cheers!
New XL Solaris frame in a few weeks.
New forks and wheels as budget allows, and transplant all the rest from the Cove?
£620ish gets you
[url= https://www.allterraincycles.co.uk/orange-p7-29-hardtail-frame-2018 ] p7 frame [/url]
[url= https://www.bike-components.de/en/Fox-Racing-Shox/34-Float-29-130-Grip-Rhythm-51-Boost-Suspension-Fork-2017-OEM-p61616/ ] fox fork [/url]
It's where my money is currently trying not to be...
Oh and if it didn't get split Ton had an XL Solaris max for sale in classifieds
Recommend what you have time...
Marin Nail Trail 7 - 1x11 SLX, dropper, longish and lowish and slackish without being overly so, wide rims and very light wheel set (shod with iffy OEM tyres), great fork. Super fast and fun on long days and more nadgery stuff....
They do an XL in 29er flavour, £1600 before a nice British Cycling discount or similar, leaves money for a new set of tyres and a holiday from your budget...
Embrace your size and get a 29+ ........ £1800 (or less if you shop around) will get you the new version of the Krampus.
Perfect for local woods and hooning around on, and also for a spot of bike-packing.
Rigid forks as standard, but the 3" tyre gives some cush up front. I picked up a set of Manitou Magnum Pros in vgc for under £200, and they just make it even more of a hooligan.
Jesus wept, how tall are you? That seat post would give me vertigo.
Being a tall lad I'd get the 2017 P7 over the Crush as it's a bigger bike. From memory the XL P7 is 21" where as the Crush is 20" with all other measurements adjusted for size. When I got my P7 I was told the 7's feel big where as the Crush feels small for any given size.
Oh, and the P7's are ace.
Per IDG’s post above - it might be worth you looking at the companies that do long frames with modern geometry. Do Whyte do anything in budget?
Bird definitely do - I’d have thought the Zero TR might be better than the zero AM for relatively flat trails.
Neat fun to buy a new hardtail...!!!
I bike old bikes, 27.5 and 29 inch and newer low budget ones and keep on upgrading bikes which are 4-5 years old. Your 14 year old bike is a neat antique hardtail - would keep it just out of fun - as second bike or so...
In my opinion: "all mountain" hardtails with decent fork travel are all very good right now. The geo will be very similar on those bikes. 65 deg head angle and so on and so on.
What changed a lot in the recent years: rims and tires and forks.
My recommendation: look for a 27.5 inch bike where you are able to fit at least 2.4 inch rubber in. Maybe up to 2.6 inch. Look for hubs where you get spare parts for and which are able to service. Means no "Formula" hubs or similar. Hope or low cost DT 370 hubs? Internal rim size should be best MORE than 25 mm. High quality (but not necessary big money) fork. Around 140 mm travel, stanchions 34 mm or more, thru axle.
Fashion thing in my opinion: 1x11 and 1x12. I'am a big, big fan of of 2x10 Deore... But no matter which way you go - would be nice to at least be able to mount a front mech...
You are quite tall. 29 inch bikes might be an option for you. 29 inch hardtails can be very fast. But from a fun level: I judge 27.5 inch as more playful / more fun. The trend with AM hardtails right now is 27.5 inch (or?).
Lot's of development for 27.5 inch fat tires.
2.4 inch rubber is great already, 2.6 inch plenty options which are quite good and 2.8 inch starts getting good. In the next couple years there might be a shift for AM hardtails to go into direction 2.6 inch rubber. Frame, fork, rims should be prepared for this development?
Go 29 !
Thanks for the suggestions!
My geometron is 29" so I'd be happy with 29" to share bits between bikes or 27.5" as a contrast.
The P7 29er frame as a build up looks good, but is a frame for 150mm and the fork is 130mm, so -2 from the head angle?
The nail trail comes in xxl, which looked ace. However its only a 22" and its the same reach as the orange xl's
The krampus is a budget creep item. I'm not sold on 29+ for my local trails.
The bird just doesn;t float my boat. Not sure why as it is a long xl.
I think the 2017 p7's are 21" seat tube and the 2018 are 20" tube
Good point on the ready for the future proofing. The cove is 26", straight head tube, 135mm rear wheel and it is making it difficult to upgrade the frame and keep the working bits.
Genesis Tarn would ticks boxes for you and some very good around on them.
I'd be looking at Boost 29/650B+ for future-proofing, but with a threaded BB for compatibility personally.
If you don't like the Bird, how about the Pole Taival? Nice and exclusive: https://polebicycles.com/taival/
The TR build is within budget and the XL is nicely big.
The P7 29er frame as a build up looks good, but is a frame for 150mm and the fork is 130mm, so -2 from the head angle?
Happy to be corrected but i think the 29 is for a 130 fork.
150 is for the 650b i believe.
Ah, you're right danger brain, it's the 27.5 that's a 150 Fork.
The pole looks awesome! And the xl is a similar size and geometary to my Geometron. Very tempting
Thanks for the suggestions. In the end I went with an Orange Clockwork 120 so I could keep my old forks, wheels and tyres.
The BB is very low at 290mm but on the smooth singletrack round Nottingham that doesn't seem to be a problem.
If the Pole had been available I would have gone for that, but is not available until June some time.
